Editorials
‘Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin’ – That Wild Ending and Where the Franchise Could Go Next
Warning: Spoilers for Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin ahead…
Next of Kin seems to be getting thrashed equally between critics and audiences. Personally, I felt like while the first two acts were uneven and a bit slow, the final act unleashed one of the most thought provoking and bat shit sequences of the entire series.
Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin could be getting the Wrong Turn treatment by fans who expected another entry in the original Paranormal Activity storyline. It could also be due simply to a strange lack of marketing by Paramount and Blumhouse.
There was very little fanfare or marketing leading up to this installment in the popular franchise. Which leads me to wonder if we’ll get a sequel at all. But if we do?
Let’s talk about where the franchise could go after that ending…
THAT ENDING
At the end of Next of Kin we learn the demon Asmodeus was being kept inside of Sarah (Margot’s Mom), whose body was the only thing keeping the demon from wreaking havoc on the village. Legend has it the demon, if released, would take control of everyone in the village and cause them to inflict violence on each other until they were all dead. It seems as though Sarah was becoming weak and the demon was beginning to fully take over her body. Enter Margot, the planned next vessel for the demon.
The way I saw it, the scary boob monster we encounter in the cave is aesthetically a mix between the now weakened Sarah and Asmodeus. He’s almost taken complete control of her. When Margot gives her the hook of death and she gets all gooey on the machinery, Asmodeus is fully released. Which is why you immediately start to hear the townsfolk screaming in agony as they murder each other like a bunch of trust fund babies at a Fyrefest festival (had it gone on for seven to twelve more minutes).
What a scene that was! Margot and Chris head back to the van. On their way, in an almost found footage tracking shot (if that’s a thing), they encounter a man with no eyeballs laughing, a man on fire pretending to be a scarecrow, and overall general mayhem. Lucky for them, they’ve clearly been to a Black Friday event at Walmart and are capable of maneuvering their way out.They finally get the van started and out of goddamn nowhere like Sting from the rafters, a guy with a shotgun was waiting on the other side of the barn. They somehow escape all this, Margot does her best Texas Chainsaw Massacre scream impression, and we’re on the road again.
Meanwhile, in a great series of cinematic shots a cop car pulls into the farm. Something about the first person bodycam and the falling snow mixing with the red and blue lights was just impressive as hell. The cop goes into the barn and encounters the new Asmodeus…..it’s Samuel! The weird cousin! Shirtless and in full on naked Terminator pose (though he has thankfully chosen to keep his pants on), making creepy ass baby noises. He’s been born into the word and we’re all in deep shit.
Samodeus reveals himself to the police officer and with a single look, the officer (while we’re still in first person view) takes the gun and shoots himself in the head. It’s disconcerting. Another officer is treated to the same demise with a simple look from Samodeus before he gets in the police car and calmly drives off. Not before changing the radio station to some Loretta Lynn. Which was a strange but neat touch.
What does this all mean? Well, I think it means that we’re all gonna die. But first, I wonder if he’s just escaping to find the next town, village, city to destroy? Or is he specifically inclined to follow Margot and Chris so that he may kill her and therefore destroy the only thing that could suppress his powers? Now that he’s been born into the world again, is she even able to get him back in there? You wouldn’t think so but hasn’t all of this happened before?
Imagine if Margot and Chris get to safety and read about the police officers that perished. Margot could realize that the Wild N’ Crazy Cult of Demonology was right all along. She realizes she’s the only one who can end this. But first, she has to figure out how all this shit works right? And the whole village and anyone who knows how to stop him is likely dead.
FOLLOW UP POSSIBILITIES
The way I see it we essentially we have five options for a follow up in this storyline:
1- Asmodeus goes on a Terminator style hunt down of Margot and Chris. Either because there is a way for her to suppress him or because he’s just pissed off that they got away.
2– Margot feels responsible and goes on a hunt to find out how to destroy Asmodeus while he’s out murdering from town to town but first has to find a cult member who’s still alive to help.
3- We move on to a completely different set of people who Asmodeus wonders upon as they try to survive him. You could get crafty with this and have him inflict his will upon another esoteric special interest group to keep the story contained. You could even tie this into idea number two and have her show up at the end.
4- We go completely wild and turn Next of Kin 2 into an all out found footage disaster film with Asmodeus wreaking havoc on the entire world. Think Chronicle; the footage is all filmed through news cameras and cell phone feeds of him causing us full on carnage and mayhem as we collectively as the human race try and stop him. Imagine the wild ending of Next of Kin taking place in a highly populated city?
Alas, number five with a bullet. I know many of you who aren’t a fan of these deep franchise sequels will enjoy this. Hell, many of you will have already commented it below before you even get to this point in the article. The last option for the Paranormal Activity franchise is for them to do absolutely nothing. They could completely leave the franchise alone and not make a sequel at all. It actually works from a story aspect and feels like the ending of the original Halloween (or at least Carpenter’s intended ending). The monster survived and he’s out there amongst us. The end.
What would you all like to see done with the franchise at this point?
We’re now officially in the back half of 2026 now that July is here, but what a year it’s been for horror so far. The sequels and reboots are still holding strong at the box office with films like Scream 7 and Scary Movie, but it’s also been a year where new voices are shattering records in unexpected ways.
Markiplier eschewed conventional production and distribution channels with his feature adaptation of Iron Lung, for example. We’re also still in the midst of Backrooms and Obsession-mania, with the former back in theaters with bonus footage and the latter extending its box office reign. Liminal horror has exploded, and low-budget indie horror is seeing just as much, and sometimes even more, success as big studio-backed fare.
All of which to say that 2026 has been a hell of a year so far for the genre, and it’s only getting warmed up. Still on the way are Evil Dead Burn, Insidious: Out of the Further, Resident Evil, Clayface, Whalefall, and Werwulf, just to name a few.
Also catch up with the Best Horror Books and Best Horror Games of the year so far.
Here are the ten best horror movies of the year (so far).
10) Chime
Horror master Kiyoshi Kurosawa is back with one of his most haunting yet, though one that’d likely be higher on this list if it were more accessible. The 45-minute feature was initially produced and distributed as an NFT before receiving a theatrical run earlier this year, with no plans to distribute digitally or on home media. It spins a somewhat cryptic tale, introducing a culinary teacher, Takuji Matsuoka (Mutsuo Yoshioka, Never After Dark), whose classroom becomes disrupted by a strange sound that leads to violence. It’s a quiet but haunting unraveling, one that leaves no aspect of Matsuoka’s life untouched, in true Kiyoshi Kurosawa style. That it defies any easy explanation also ensures Chime embeds itself under your skin.
9) Send Help
Sam Raimi’s splatstick return to form is a delightfully deranged two-hander that doubles as infectious catharsis for anyone who’s ever had a bad boss. Rachel McAdams (Doctor Strange) and Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner) face off when their characters are shipwrecked on an island, prompting a bid for survival in more ways than one. While O’Brien often matches her, It’s McAdams who shines as she deftly handles everything that Raimi, working from a script by Damian Shannon & Mark Swift (Freddy vs. Jason), throws at her. Send Help is full of vibrant personality, packed with all of Raimi’s signatures, making for one of the most entertaining films of the year.
8) Mārama
New Zealand filmmaker Taratoa Stappard’s gothic tale begins in familiar fashion, with Mary Stevens (Ariāna Osborne) arriving in Yorkshire upon invitation to learn more about her parents, only to find the remote manor haunted. Just when Stappard’s period horror story feels doomed to succumb to familiar gothic trappings and jump scares, though, its true horror emerges. The more Mary uncovers about her heritage and her Māori culture, the clearer it becomes that this grim home is built on violence and exploitation. Stappard’s vision comes into its own when it leaves behind its gothic influences and embraces its Māori identity; few scenes are as powerful as when Osborne’s Mary performs a haka in response to her vile oppressors, heralding in a righteous bloodbath.
7) Touch Me
Writer/Director Addison Heimann draws from retro Japanese horror, exploitation cinema, and perhaps even hentai for his campy, psychosexual sophomore feature. A toxic friendship plagued by trauma, codependency, and addiction gets tested to the extreme when Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci), a hip-hop-loving, tracksuit-sporting alien, gets between them. Olivia Taylor Dudley and Jordan Gavaris have an easy rapport and play off each other well as directionless, depressed Millennial besties prone to ignoring their problems until they become insurmountable. But it’s Pucci’s inspired, childlike take on the chicken nugget-loving extraterrestrial with tentacled secrets of his own that steals the show. Heimann has a lot on his mind with his sophomore feature and neatly condenses it all into a quirky, eccentric psychosexual camp odyssey that leans heavily into humor.
6) Backrooms
Director Kane Parsons translates the vast liminal labyrinth of his web series to the big screen in his feature debut, one that instills existential dread with its atmospheric horror and narrative. The ‘ 90s-set horror movie introduces a protagonist with a serious chip on his shoulder over life’s many disappointments, who then discovers his furniture store harbors a hidden door that leads to an endless labyrinth. It’s not just the incredible production design that instills a disorienting sense of doom and terror, but the lead characters’ palpable and profound sense of loneliness and isolation. Parsons exudes impressive confidence and control as he methodically entrusts his quiet worldbuilding and talented leads to carry the dramatic weight. While Backrooms does deflate by the film’s cryptic, cliffhanger-y end, it’s arguably the most effective and scariest yet at capturing the uncanny valley of generative AI.
5) Leviticus
Writer/Director Adrian Chiarella uses an It Follows-like supernatural entity that relentlessly stalks its prey as a launchpad to immerse audiences in the horror of constantly living in fear for simply existing. A conversion therapy ritual among a deeply conservative community plunges a pair of erstwhile lovers into a nightmarish bid for survival when it summons a force that takes the shape of those whom the afflicted desires most. Chiarella refines the horror mechanics and metaphor with much sharper precision, ensuring that the scares and emotional gravity of the young couple’s terrifying predicament reach their intended impact. It’s the central layered performances by Joe Bird (Talk to Me) and Stacy Clausen (Thrash) that clinch emotional investment in their heartbreaking plight, ensuring that the social horror cuts deep.
4) Redux Redux
The McManus Brothers, writer/director duo Matthew and Kevin McManus (The Block Island Sound), dials up the intensity of a classic revenge story by setting it within a multiverse, where Irene Kelly (Michaela McManus) seeks to snuff out every single iteration of her daughter’s murderer, Neville (Jeremy Holm). The more she stalks and slays every world’s Neville, the more she risks losing her humanity entirely. Through a narrative foil in Mia (Stella Marcus), Redux Redux smartly bypasses repetition as it explores the moral complexities and vulnerabilities of Irene’s extremely violent quest. Holm becomes utterly terrifying in the climax, ensuring that no matter whether Irene loses herself to vengeance for good or not, it’s justified if it means ridding the world of this sick maniac.
3) 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Director Nia DaCosta takes the reins in the second entry in writer Alex Garland and original director Danny Boyle’s trilogy, picking up from the previous conclusion that saw Spike (Alfie Williams) fleeing from the infected straight into the welcoming arms of Sir Jimmy Crystal (Sinners’ Jack O’Connell). From here, DaCosta presents a stark contrast between humanity’s best and worst. The former sees the tender studies of Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) make poignant strides toward humankind’s future, while the latter unleashes more pain and bloodshed courtesy of the Jimmies. The dual paths of light and dark collide in one epic conclusion, an inspired confrontation between good and evil on a stunning set piece of heavy metal insanity. Yet it’s DaCosta’s handling of both extremes that impresses most, teeing up one epic conclusion to this trilogy.
2) Obsession
Sketch comedian turned horror filmmaker Curry Barker (Milk & Serial) wrings blood-curdling terror from a classic Monkey’s Paw wish fulfillment scenario in a way that no one could have ever anticipated. To say that it’s taken the box office by storm would be a massive understatement; Obsession is the top horror movie of the year in terms of gross. It’s not hard to see why, either. While Monkey’s Paw scenarios often yield predictable outcomes, and this outcome is practically telegraphed from the start, Barker manages to surprise with the journey itself. And it’s one insane journey paved with blood-soaked violence and no shortage of nightmare fuel. What truly sets it apart, though, is leads Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette as the central pair undone by one vicious wish. Expect to see a lot more from breakout Navarette.
1) Hokum
A surly, traumatized writer must break free from his self-imposed shackles of guilt when confronted by a wicked witch haunting a quaint Irish inn in the latest by writer/director Damian McCarthy (Oddity). Adam Scott’s Ohm makes for an atypical but rewarding protagonist, and his complicated emotional journey gives way to a deeply moving story of a man so thoroughly broken by personal trauma that he constantly dwells in darkness. In true McCarthy style, expect the creepy as hell witch to dole out some supernatural retribution for crimes committed, but never in the way you’d expect. The filmmaker has a way of making whimsy pure nightmare fuel; Hokum distorts a kids’ show into eerie, uncanny valley-induced terror in its torment of Ohm. Channeling Stephen King, this creeper plays like a traditional campfire tale in mood and style, infusing genuine scares with a sense of magic and heart.
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